Biography

Phil Clark is Reader in Comparative and International Politics, with reference to Africa. An Australian by nationality but born in Sudan, Dr Clark is a political scientist specialising in conflict and post-conflict issues in Africa, particularly questions of peace, truth, justice and reconciliation. His research addresses the history and politics of the African Great Lakes, focusing on causes of and responses to genocide and other forms of mass violence. His work also explores the theory and practice of transitional justice, with particular emphasis on community-based approaches to accountability and reconciliation and the law and politics of the International Criminal Court.

Previously, he was a Research Fellow in Courts and Public Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, a Golding Research Fellow at Brasenose College, and co-founder and convenor of Oxford Transitional Justice Research. He has a DPhil in Politics from Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Research

Dr Clark’s current work focuses on international, national and community-based responses to mass violence in Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. He has written extensively on the gacaca community courts in post-genocide Rwanda and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Dr. Clark was technical advisor and co-author of a 2007 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights project surveying popular perceptions of transitional justice and peacebuilding in northern Uganda. He has advised the Danish, Sudanese, Swedish, Ugandan and UK governments, the ICC, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Human Rights Watch and Crisis Group on conflict issues in Africa.

History, Politics and Law of the African Great Lakes; Transitional Justice Theory and Practice; the Politics of Violence; Community-Based and Customary Law; Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation; the Politics of International Criminal Justice; Peacebuilding, Security and Post-Conflict Reconstruction; Moral and Political Philosophy